Experiments in Python Chapter 3
In the previous sections you have seen how to develop programs using Scratch and Greenfoot. These are a great environments for learning how to construct a program from component parts. They take data from the program and the user, manipulate it and then change what you see on screen by following the instructions in your program. However, this style of programming has limitations when it comes to constructing solutions to much larger and more complex problems. To get the best performance from a computer and to get the most flexibility, there are many other computer programming languages and techniques. They number in the hundreds, and each has its own place in solving computer-science problems. Your Raspberry Pi could interpret pretty much all of these languages. To help you move closer to the process by which many real-world applications are developed, this chapter shows you how programs are written in one particularly popular language, called Python. According to Wikipedia, “Python was conceived in the late 1980s and its implementation was started in December 1989 by Guido van Rossum at CWI in the Netherlands.” Python is a language that is intended to be fun to use. It is named after the British comedy television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus . If you don’t find it fun, wait until you try some other computer languages! This chapter is not intended as a tutorial or reference guide to the Python language – if you want these, then there are many fine resources on the internet. However, hopefully, these listings will be a great starting point for you to experiment yourself.
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Experiments in Python
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